This invention relates to cartons, and more particularly, to a beverage container carton having a carrying handle.
In the marketing of soft drinks, beer and other beverages, it is well known to sell those retail consumer products in containers, such as cans, glass bottles, PET bottles or other containers which are grouped together in packs of four, six, eight, ten, twelve, twenty-four or any number of containers. Particularly in the case of twelve packs, it is common to package the containers in cartons so as to make it easier to handle the product for the wholesaler and the retailer, as well as for the retail consumer.
A wide variety of different types of container cartons are known. One particular type that has found significant commercial success over the years is a so-called wraparound or sleeve-style carton. In a wraparound carton, a number of containers, e.g., twelve, are wrapped in a paperboard box or carton having a top and bottom wall panels, side wall panels, and end flaps on each end. The end flaps at each end of the top, bottom and side panels are sealed one to the other, thereby providing a closed end and sealed package or carton for the containers.
With this and many types of container carton packages, a carrying handle is often provided on the carton so that both the retailer and retail consumer can more easily carry the carton. A number of different carrying handles are known in the wraparound carton art. The overall purpose of such carton handles is to provide an easy to use handle that is structurally sound so the users can pick up and carry the wraparound carton simply through use of the handle structure without concern that the carton or handle will rip or fail.
Wraparound cartons of this type are commonly punched or die-cut from paperboard material. Different paperboard characteristics such as the composition and thickness offer differing amounts of strength, particularly tear strength, to the material and, as such, the resulting carton. Naturally, thicker, denser and stronger paperboard stock is typically more expensive and carton manufacturers who produce great quantities of paperboard cartons are interested in providing the most economical carton without sacrificing functionality, including carton strength. Paperboard stock that is thinner and made from non-virgin pulp is often less expensive than thicker stock made from virgin pulp, but the strength characteristics of such paperboard stock are also often lower. As such, carton designers endeavor to utilize the most economical paperboard stock while providing the requisite functionality and strength to the carton design.
Moreover, the use of different types of paperboard has a significantly different environmental impact. For example, two common types of paperboard utilized in beverage container cartons are coated recycled board (CRB) and coated unbleached kraftboard (CUK). As the name implies, the CRB is made from 100% recycled components, while the CUK is made from only 20% recycled materials. Environmental impact analysis has shown that the use of CRB is drastically more environmentally beneficial than the use of CUK with significant reductions in wood use, net energy consumption, overall energy for production, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide generation (SO2 and NOx), greenhouse gas emissions, hazardous air pollutants (HAP), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), total reduced sulfur (TRS), wastewater generation, biochemical and chemical oxygen demand (BOD and COD), and solid waste.
Various prior carton and handle designs utilize specifically positioned lines in the paperboard carton relative to the handle in an effort to reduce or transfer the forces experienced by the handle when the carton is lifted. In some instances, these stress-relieving lines are cuts or tear lines in the paperboard material which may serve to weaken the carton and initiate or propagate a tear in the carton material. Other such lines are located only in the top panel of the carton and, due to their limited extent, fail to sufficiently distribute and dissipate the lifting stresses. Still other known arrangements of so-called stress-relieving lines focus the lifting stresses on specific areas of the carton, such as the corners, thereby creating a stress induced rupture or failure of the paperboard in those areas.
Taking these factors into consideration, it is one object of this invention to provide a beverage carton which has the necessary tear strength and rigidity in the area surrounding the handle and other area of the carton, but is more cost-effective, utilizing thinner and/or environmentally friendly paperboard and which can be produced at or near top line speeds and production rates.
Accordingly, it has been another objective of this invention to provide a novel carrying handle and carton design and, particularly, for a wraparound type carton, where the handle's structural components are formed directly from the carton blank. And with this type of handle, it is another objective of this invention to provide an improved carrying handle structure which maintains the structural integrity of the wraparound carton through the distribution chain until it is chosen by a retail consumer, which is very easy to render usable, and to use, by the retail consumer once the carton has been so chosen, and which does not adversely impact on the structural integrity of the carton when the carton handle is lifted by the blank.